Wayne County man pleads guilty to burglary at start of second trial

Fulton, NY -- Scott Furey, 41, of Wayne County, faces a four-year prison sentence now that he has pleaded guilty to burglary, a class C violent felony.

Oswego County District Attorney Gregory Oakes said Furey pleaded guilty last week in front of Acting County Court Judge Spencer Ludington. Oakes said Furey admitted to physically menacing his ex-girlfriend, after forcibly breaking down her apartment door and unlawfully entering her apartment.

The burglary plea satisfies all charges against Furey, including a second-degree kidnapping charge and various misdemeanor charges stemming from an incident in Oswego May 27, 2008.

He will be sentenced July 17 in Fulton City Court.

This was the second time Furey had been in court on charges stemming from the break-in at his ex-girlfriend’s apartment. An Oswego County Court jury convicted him in March 2009 and Judge Walter Hafner sentenced him to 5 ½ years in state prison on the kidnapping charge and 3 ½ on the burglary charge, to be served concurrently.

But on appeal, the state Court of Appeals ruled Hafner erred by not removing from the jury pool a potential juror who knew people involved in the case. Kathleen Comerford, the wife of then Oswego Police Capt. James Comerford, was a prospective juror in the case and knew or had professional relationships with several of the witnesses expected to testify at Furey’s trial, said his lawyer Gary Muldoon, of Rochester.

The Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for Furey. He pleaded guilty the day the trial was to begin.